1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention described herein pertain to the field of computer systems. More particularly, but not by way of limitation, one or more embodiments of the invention enable an apparatus, system and method for an electronic bingo game variation.
2. Description of the Related Art
The origin of the game of bingo has been traced to a lottery game played in Italy around 1530 A.D. This game was played by matching numbers on a card containing three horizontal rows and nine vertical rows. The modern game of bingo was reportedly invented by Edwin Lowe, who discovered a variation of the Italian game being played in the American south in the late 1920's. Lowe brought the game to New York, developing his own unique cards and rules, and is credited with naming the game “bingo.” His version became widely popular and is still played today in church basements, recreation centers and casinos across the country and around the world. Unfortunately for Mr. Lowe, he was unable to patent his game, though many variations of the standard game have since been patented.
The standard game of bingo is generally played as illustrated in FIG. 1. First, a player buys one or more bingo cards with which to play the game at step 101. The card cost may be used to create a jackpot split between the winner or winners and the house. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a standard bingo card 201. At step 103 the player receives a card containing a matrix of characters 203, arranged in any of a number of formats of rows and columns. In the standard game, matrix of characters 203 comprises 25 squares arranged in five columns by five rows, each row headed by one of the letters of the word “bingo.” Matrix of characters 203 is populated from a predetermined set of available characters, such as the numbers between 1 and 75, inclusive. In FIG. 2, for example, the character “74” is indicated by reference 205. In many variations, the central square 207 is a free space, meaning it is considered filled. In the standard game, the “B” column may contain numbers from 1 to 15, the “I” column may contain numbers from 16 to 30, the “N” column may contain numbers from 31 to 45, the “G” column may contain numbers from 46 to 60, and the “O” column may contain numbers from 61 to 75. The variation of the standard game represented by card 201 reportedly has 5.52*1026 possible arrangements of numbers on a bingo card.
Play begins at step 105 when a “caller” selects a bingo ball from a pool of available bingo balls. A bingo ball may resemble a ping pong ball marked with one assigned character selected from the numbers 1 to 75. The caller calls out the character on the drawn bingo ball and the players attempt to match the draw to the characters on the player's bingo card 201. For example, bingo ball “74” would match character 205 of bingo card 201. If the drawn character matches a character on the card, the character on card is “daubed” at step 107, meaning it is marked with an indicator of a match. In FIG. 2, circle 213 is a “daub” placed on the second square under the column headed “I” to indicate a match. The drawn character then joins the pool of drawn characters at step 109.
At step 111 the daubs on bingo card 201 are checked to see if the daubs create a pattern that matches any of a predetermined set of winning patterns. For example, daubing all the characters in the first row of matrix 203 creates a “line” of daubs. A line may be a winning pattern in one or more games. The various patterns in the set of winning patterns may have different payout amounts or payout percentages.
Traditionally, when a player achieves a winning pattern the player yells, “bingo!” and the card is independently verified against the draw pool as a winner, as shown at step 113. In the standard game, when a player achieves “bingo!” the player receives the jackpot and the game ends at step 115. If multiple players achieve “bingo!” at the same time, the jackpot is shared among them.
If no one wins, at step 117, the number of draws is checked to see if a maximum number of balls have been drawn (typically 39 balls). If not, the game continues back at step 105 with a new draw. If the maximum bingo balls have been drawn without a winner, the game ends at step 115 and the jackpot rolls over (or accrues to the house) and a new game may begin.
Recently, electronic games have been developed offering variations on the standard bingo game, such as giving the player an opportunity for one or more extra bingo balls if the player has a losing card that meets various criteria for being close to a winning pattern. For example, see U.S. Patent application 2009/0075715 by Coleman. Other recent patents provide the player the chance to change or modify a losing card if there is no winner, such as the game of Graves described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,038. However, there is a continuing commercial need for new and exciting electronic bingo games that provide second chance games that will encourage players to continue to patronize bingo providers. For at least the limitations described above there is a need for an apparatus and method for new forms of second chance electronic bingo games.